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Early Citali Encounters
After the Citali were officially discovered many accounts of meetings with these previously elusive beings have been put forward. This is a collection of the few which may have some truth. Im sorry '' A letter sent to an enkirid family during the early days of enkirid space travel, carved into a peice of anearly enkirid starship'' Im sorry, and i will never stop being sorry, didnt know. He invited me onto the ship, i came on,i didnt understand. There wasa mistake, ikept the open behind me. He froze so fast,there was nothing i could do, i tried to talk to him. He wouldnt speak, i just didnt know. I found your pictures, i found your home locations. it was hard to find you, and i hope you can forgive me. in the same year a one man ship was found with its inhabitant dead, frozen from vacuum exposure. His family were the ones who received the letter. Drifting alone It is unknown if this encounter can be trusted, it was taken from the journal of a man in a mental instituition. He was a suracke asteroid miner, when he was found he was suffering from the effects of salt deprivation and hte oxygen in his suit was low They always said space was dangerous. A charge place on an asteroid without a counter charge sent the asteroid spinning, i hadnt had any salt in a week, supplies were low on the ship and now i had no chance. Drifting alone without a ship, i was doomed, death would be upon me within three days, the suit worked well but it only had so much air. It was so cold and empty. Thats when the angel came, she was beautiful, her eyes were so deep. The lights sped up, i could hear her voice, in my radio or in my head i couldnt tell. She told me to sleep, i was more than glad to. I awoke, drifting aside one of the other ships in the mining fleet. The ships were so far apart that it would be impossible for me to have drifted towards it. The people on the ship told me i was mad. But I knew the truth, my angel was real and she saved me. The Captain's Fateful Voyage It is still unknown if this account is in fact true. The captain appears to be one of the humans who fled to the Rankeri system during the Blank era their exact identities are unknown. The ship came to a gentle stop in the centre of the asteroid field and the coms flared into life, calling all of the ships small crew into action. “All hands to the bridge, all sensors to full, we may not be the first in this rubble, I don't want anything missed.” “Aye, Cap'n.” came the twin responses. The bridge of the ship was soon full of bustle, even though it was occupied by only three people. Two of them were constantly moving, floating from screen to screen shouting findings across the room. “Iron, carbon, all the usual stuff.” One shouted. “Water ices too, and some methane ice.” Was the other's message. “Heavy elements!” The first exclaimed, “Vanadium and Tungsten, plutonium and Uranium even. And Bismuth!” These words washed over me, and I had to fight the excitement which had permeated the bridge. I held a hand up and they fell silent. “Extra care must be taken then, we are not far enough from the Rankeri system to be sure we are not the first here. Also, in a rich field like this never forget the Lamia.” “You don't need to tell us cap'n” “We were just happy to have finally found some bismuth.” I sighed, “I know, but we cannot let our guard down now.” The others returned to their main screens quietly, my warning having put a damper on their high spirits. They grasped the controls and soon our drones were shooting off between the rocks, scanners fanned out as they searched for what we needed. I watched them, breath caught in my throat with the excitement I had held down before. “Cap'n, we found it, permission to drill.” One asked me. I took a breath, “Permission granted.” The other nodded, “Drones touching down, drills engaging.” “Three, two, one automatic engaged.” I wiped the sweat off my forehead, mildly surprised at its presence, “Good work, lets go get some food.” Together we then floated off the bridge and down to the cramped living quarters. I fall into a silence as the other two talk about their families. I drifted off slightly allowing their voices to fade as I contemplated my own thoughts. A few moments later though my thoughts were interrupted by the mechanical voice of the ships' systems. “Warning! Unknown life signature found!” Well drilled for situations like this we moved instinctively, pushing our way efficiently onto the bridge. The other two quickly took up positions at their individual consoles, while I drifted into my position where I could clearly see all the main screens. “High energy readings, no sign of extra heat. Cap'n, we have a Lamia.” “They're closing in on the drones cap'n.” I sighed, “Do the drones have anything in them large enough to deter a Lamia?” “Negative Cap'n.” I growled in frustration, “Turn on visuals. We might as well have a look at these Lamia.” The upper screens lit up showing the barren landscape of a large asteroid and the other silvery drone. Open space above was anything but open, filled with delicately balanced stones. Between the stones we could see only the barest hint of stars. I turned to the others, slightly confused at the emptiness, they saw my question before it was voiced and turned back to the consoles to retrieve an answer. After an agonising wait one turned back to me, “They seem to be behind the other asteroids, still now.” The other seemed if anything more confused than me, “And they are too small to be Lamia, much to small.” I slammed my hand down on a nearby panel, “Then what are they?!” “We don't know,” was their only answer. “Where are they?” Happier to have an answerable question one turned and floated up to the screen and carefully pointed to an asteroid almost as large as the one our drones sat upon. “The majority of them seem to be there, Cap'n.” “Zoom and expand, fill the screens with just that asteroid, I want to see what we're dealing with.” “Aye Cap'n.” The asteroid looked, normal, nothing really to make it stand out from the others, but I trusted my crew, so I stared at it hard, looking for any sign of movement, expecting at any moment to see the undulating squid like tentacles of the Lamia, albeit a smaller cousin of that frightful beast. Nothing though seemed to stand out, until... “That star it moved!” I exclaimed. “Cap'n, that could be distortion due to atmosphere, or merely a planet.” “Both of which we lack.” The other pointed out, “We aren't close enough to see a planet.” More intently now we stared picking out almost a dozen stars which were not stars. They were coming closer, shapes slowly defining as the bright forms made their way from that asteroid to the one we watched from, the one where our drones sat defenceless. “They are much smaller than the Lamia.” I said. “And not squid like in shape,” Another added. “They could be one of the races in a space suit of some sort cap'n.” “That bright? No this is something different.” I replied. “They're humanoid!” We exclaimed at once. The forms had just come into focus, bright white forms like stars in human form floating towards our drones. Skilfully they landed around the drones and came closer, reaching out towards our devices. Closer now we could see a few of the bright multi-coloured lights which seemed to zip around their bodies. “Should I activate the self-destructs Cap'n?” I found myself fascinated, “No, they haven't shown hostilities, just disengage and fly the drones back here.” “Disengaging.” We all watched, simply awestruck as these star people followed the drones, pushing of asteroids, jumping from stone to stone in graceful movements which no other could parallel. No comparison could be made, their movements were unlike anything, not even like swimming. The drones returned to the ship and the star people stopped in the asteroids around us. To stop they landed on the asteroid with all hands and feet, digging in and gripping, perfectly judging how the course of the asteroid would be affected by this. I watched them amazed by every small movement, marvelling at their instinctive knowledge of how to move in space, a knowledge no other race could mimic or learn. “Ready an open radio frequency, I want to talk to them.” Even I was slightly surprised at my own move. “Open in 3, 2” The light went on and I took a deep breath, suddenly unsure of what to say. The silence drew on and I got the impression suddenly that the star people were waiting for me to speak, their attentiveness had change from the ship as a whole and seemed to focus on me, though there was no way they could see me. It was the attentiveness of people listening, I now knew what to say. “I wish to apologise, I see now that this field is your home and we have invaded it. I also think that you are just as surprised as we are to meet another race, and jut as eager to understand us as we are to understand you. I wish to extend to you an invitation, an invitation to come aboard our humble ship. We have no gravity, but we do have an atmosphere and room to accept only two. If this I displeasing to you please do not feel we will be offended by a declination of our invitation. Please respond if our message is received.” We all held our breath as the star people gathered on one asteroid, there were fifteen in total gathered around a central star person. They were all looking down at something they held, then a crackling came across our communications systems, at first it sounded like many languages all overlayed. Quick adjustment were made and soon we could hear the response. “Once you can understand us please signal. Once -” I realised this was the same message all those languages were saying, and that gave me a little idea of what the device they were using must be. “We hear you.” I replied. “We thank you for your invitation and accept, two shall come over to your crafts' opening.” At this two push off from the asteroid directly to our ship. I marvelled again at their graceful movement, so sure and knowing. The reached our ship and with gentle hands guided themselves over its surface. “Open the airlock.” I said, but my order was being followed even before it left my mouth. I watched as the star people smoothly glided into the airlock, studying them now in greater detail than ever before. They were tall and lithe, their muscles clinging to delicate skeletons with no sign of fat. Their skin was transparent and lights existed just under the surface. Their face though was the most beautiful; with sharp pointed ears and bright eyes like intense neutron stars and soft blue-purple in colour. I looked upon them and saw beauty, but felt the nigglings of fear, of hostility in the back of my mind. I learnt a lot about myself and those around me in those few moments. “Airlock pressurised cap'n, opening inner door when you are ready to meet them.” I looked up sharply, then realised the meaning of the pointed statement. I pushed myself through the ship now acutely aware of my clumsiness after watching the star people. I stopped at the airlock and greeted the star people as they entered. “I am the Captain of the ship, welcome to my humble craft.” I said. A soft woman's voice answered, originating from the small round device one of them carried, “We are honoured to come aboard, we are curious.” Indeed they were, the other star person had already moved off to the side, delicate fingers running over display panels and controls. The floated there, infinitely more comfortable than I was in this zero G environment. “If you wish to follow me I will show you the ship, then perhaps we can sit down and talk. I am afraid I am no diplomat though, I cannot speak on behalf of anyone but myself and my crew.” “Show us and then we talk. We are no more able than you to speak on behalf of our race.” They stayed for two standard hours after that, and it was only when it was over that I realised that the star people had told me nothing of themselves. Always the conversation had turned to me and my experience, innocent questions. They were vague when answering for themselves and shy, not even giving me the name of their race, though this may be due to language difficulties. Thinking back I know we can never speak of the star people to other people, but I know now that not all who were labelled mad were mad. The Star people exist, one day the universe will know that for certain. This account you can see is quite compelling. The location and date are perfect, and conditions are well described all points to this being a true encounter.